C++ Returning reference to temporary [duplicate]

Answer 1

The call to AnotherObject's constructor creates a new instance on the stack, which is immediatly destroyed when the method returns.

It is most likely not a good idea to create and return new object if the find fails. The calling code will have no way to tell if the object returned is a previously existing object present in the data structure.

If you do want to do this, then you should add the new object to the data structure and then return an iterator pointing to the new object IN THE DATA STRUCTURE.

Something like this:

if (it == this->end()) {
    it = this->insert(pair( string, AnotherObject() ));
    return  it->second; 
}